A tech expert traces India’s journey from an outsourcing hub of the 1990s to an innovation destination of today.

When I first became aware of the Indian tech sector in 1993, India would have been the least likely candidate to be named an innovation hub. Back then, and for many years, it was known more as a place where you could outsource your software development at low cost. Or in manufacturing, as the then secretary of department of electronics used to tell me, it was becoming known for ‘screwdriver assembly’, whereby product kits were imported and then assembled in India for either local consumption or re-export.